The present invention relates to an emergency locking apparatus for a glove box lid which prevents opening of the lid when an impulsive deforming force in the oblique lower front direction is applied to the upper part of the instrument panel or the lid for the glove box.
There are some known emergency lid locking devices which are designed to prevent the opening of the lid for the glove box, even when a passenger's head hits the instrument panel or the lid for the glove box in a collision of a motor vehicle.
As a glove box equipped with such an emergency locking apparatus one may mention, for instance, the apparatus which is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model No. 59-26050. In this Model, there is disclosed a glove box as shown in FIGS. 1 to FIG. 3.
In FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, in the front 1a of the instrument panel 1, there is opened a glove box 2. The aperture 2a of the glove box 2 can be closed and opened with a lid 3 that can be turned upward and downward with the lower edge of the lid as the center axis. In addition, on the sides of the aperture 2a, there are provided end walls 4 that are indented one step into the interior of the box. On the end walls 4, there are drilled arm insertion openings 5 through which are inserted arc-shaped stopper arms 6. The outer ends of the stopper arms 6 are fixed to both side sections of the inner surface of the lid 3. Moreover, on the inner ends of the stopper arms 6 there are provided first engaging pawls 7, and in the neighborhood of the outer ends of the stopper arms 6 there are provided second engaging pawls 8 as the arm engaging units.
Further, in FIG. 3 is shown the case in which engaging notches 9 are provided in place of the engaging pawls 8 as the arm engaging units on the stopper arms 6.
With such a configuration, there sometimes occurs a situation in a collision of a motor vehicle in which the lid 3 is displaced obliquely toward the lower front due to a passenger's head hitting in the direction of the arrow 10, against the upper part of the instrument panel 1 or of the lid 3. In such a case, the engaging pawls 8 or the engaging notches 9 are caught by the lower edge sections 4a of the arm insertion openings 5 on the side walls 4, as indicated by the doubly dotted chain lines in the figures, to deter the opening of the lid 3.
However, even in this condition, engaging pawls 8 or the engaging notches 9 are not necessarily engaged with the lid 3 securely enough in the vertical direction, so that if there is a reaction or there are applied vibrations in the vertical direction on the vehicle body, it is possible that the engaging pawls 8 or the engaging notches 9 get out of place from the lower edge sections 4a of the arm insertion openings 5 on the side walls 4. This aspect has been regarded to require some kind of improvement.